Page 5 of The Perfect Revenge
"Of course.And feel free to talk to him.It can't hurt, and hearing a familiar voice might help."
Hannah walked over and took Finn’s hand in hers.It was warmer than she expected.
“Finn, it’s Hannah.I know you’re going to wake up real soon.”Then she leaned in close and whispered in his ear so that only he could hear.“And I promise that whoever did this to you will pay.Count on it.”
She thought she felt a slight twitch of his fingers in her hand, but couldn't be sure.She stood next to him for a few minutes, recounting what had happened at UC Irvine in the weeks he'd been gone.Her updates were boring, but she doubted that he cared.After a bit, she ran out of things to share and looked over at Nurse Lenore.
“Was that okay?”
"Absolutely.Unfortunately, I have to do a comprehensive vitals check now.They're required every four hours, and his latest is overdue.So I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to step out."
Hannah nodded and left the room.
“You ready to head back?”Ryan asked.
“Can I come again?”she asked.
Ryan turned to Jessie, who in turned looked at Murph.
"Obviously, if he wakes up, we'll try to get you in to see him," the Marshal told her."Until then, this might be it for a while.As I said earlier, his family doesn't know you're here, and they would probably take issue with us having brought you.We never would have, except that your sister insisted.But with the attacker still out there, the risk of repeated visits is too great to make this a regular thing."
"And that's why you can't tell anyone about this," Jessie added."I mean,no one.If it gets out that Finn is on the verge of waking up, his attacker might go to any lengths to take him out.Right now, he’s safe here.If he wakes up and IDs whoever did this, we’ll pick that person up immediately.Until then, this whole thing stays among the people who are in this house right now.”
“Don’t worry,” Hannah said as she started back down the hall to the garage door, “I won’t be talking to anyone about this.”
She reached the door, but then turned back and glared at Jessie.When she spoke, it was under her breath so that only her sister could hear.
“And I won’t be talking toyouabout much of anything.You betrayed my trust and now you’ve lost it.”
She turned her back before Jessie could reply, walked over to the SUV, and got in.Then she slammed the door hard, taking out the anger she felt at her sister on the innocent vehicle.
But it didn’t help.She was still furious
CHAPTER THREE
Jessie was happy for the distraction.
She sat quietly in the passenger seat of Detective Susannah Valentine’s car as they drove to Brentwood.A woman had been found dead in her mansion this morning by her husband, and their boss, Captain Gaylene Parker, had sent Jessie and Susannah to investigate.Normally, the death of a woman so far from their downtown Central Station wouldn’t call for their involvement.
But this case was a little different.The victim was the wife of a wealthy, successful movie producer.The man had apparently heard of their unit, Homicide Special Section, and specifically requested they intervene.HSS was well known in Los Angeles because of the kinds of cases they handled.
Thesmall unit, consisting of five detectives and two researchers, specialized in cases with high profiles or intense media scrutiny—typically involving multiple victims or serial killers.Jessie’s husband, Ryan, ran the daily operations of the unit.Jessie was its assigned criminal profiler.Susannah was one of the other detectives.
Because the victim’s husband was a well-known producer, media interest was inevitable.And since he’d made a direct request and the unit had available resources today, Captain Parker had agreed.Jessie typically worked with Ryan, but he was already assigned to work another case with Detective Karen Bray, so Parker paired Jessie with Susannah.
Detective Susannah Valentine was a piece of work, as she was currently proving.Right now, as Jessie looked out the passenger window, Susannah was involved in an animated conversation with her boyfriend, an older, impossibly chill police sergeant from Manhattan Beach named Drake Breem.She was using earbuds so Jessie could only hear Susannah’s half of the chat, but that was more than enough.Apparently, Drake, an avid surfer, had forgotten to shower before sitting in the bed at Susannah's place, and the sheets were now covered in sand.She was not happy.
Even though Susannah didn't seem to care, Jessie felt like an intruder on their conversation and did her best to tune out her partner as they made their way to Brentwood.She knew almost nothing about the case they'd been assigned, so there was no point yet in speculating about what had happened.
Instead, she focused her attention on several other issues that had been eating at her since her return to town.It had only been a week and a half since she'd gotten back from a two-month stay at a treatment facility on the Sicilian coast.The return had been bumpy to say the least.
First of all, it had been challenging to get back in the groove with Ryan.That was admittedly complicated by her little sister, Hannah, who was living with them over the summer.But there were other issues, too.Some related to whether they wanted to add to their family.But more pressing was Jessie's mental health.
Her visit to The Ionian Center in Taormina, Sicily, wasn't related to drug or alcohol issues, depression, an eating disorder, or any of the other stuff that brought most other folks there.Jessie's issue was more unusual and much harder to address openly.
For months, she’d had a growing and hard to control urge to hurt others.Not just anyone, mind you.The specific targets of her ire were almost always the criminals she was hunting.But she took it further than the average member of law enforcement who might be disgusted by the capacity for evil in the world.She knew that many of her colleagues had the occasional desire to snuff out the people they were investigating.But she’d gone farther.
On at least three occasions leading up to her Italian sabbatical, Jessie had come close to eliminating the suspect they’d caught.In each case, it was more the presence of a partner during the arrest than her own self-control that stopped her from taking action.But that all changed just over two months ago.
